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Figures reveal no reduction in sales of meat and poultry in the 12 weeks up to 27 January 2019 despite a heavy media focus on Veganuary.There has been no overall volumes for meat, fish and poultry (MFP) fall year on year according to Kantar Worldpanel's first update of 2019, which covers the 12 weeks to 27 January.

Although there is a lot of positive healthy intent, figures show that there has not been a big change in purchasing trends.However, there is a rise in plant-based sales, but it isn’t just taking from primary and processed meats.Health conscious shoppers are helping to drive produce sales, but not hitting the MFP markets to the level as might have been expected.'Limited evidence'

Nathan Ward, MFP spokesman for Kantar Worldpanel, said there is 'limited evidence' of the UK becoming a 'nation of vegetarians and vegans'.“Christmas is still lurking in the figures, but despite the media profile of Veganuary, the impact on our market is relatively low,” Mr Ward said.“Processed products have seen a slightly stronger decline, with bacon the largest driver of this volume loss as we see 4.2 million fewer trips containing bacon.“When we focus on the last four weeks when Veganuary was running, we’ve seen flat volumes for primary meat and poultry, with fish still in strong growth, so any impact is minimal on the core categories.”He added: “What we are seeing is the continued impact of uncertainty and retailer price wars driving down prices and causing shoppers to be more conscious of their spending.”However, figures show a decline in beef volumes driven by steaks which are down 9.7%, with 420,000 fewer shoppers and 2.1 million fewer trips this year.